May 25, 2011

Senate addresses acid attacks, murder registry, background checks

SPRINGFIELD --- The Illinois Senate today approved three measures inspired by high-profile crimes, including two downstate murders and two cases where acid was tossed on the faces of Chicago women.

Senators voted 59-0 to send the governor a bill that would require background checks of employees at group homes for the mentally disabled. A second bill would create a registry for murders similar to one for sex offenders. A third would regulate the sale of acid products used commercially.

The background checks bill was named "Paul's Law" in honor of Paul McCann, who died this year at a group home for mentally disabled adults in downstate Charleston. Under the legislation, the state would perform background checks of new workers at community-based group homes as well as current workers every six months. Any employee convicted of a violent felony would be fired. The public would have access to the records of the homes.

Sponsoring Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said the goal of "Paul's Law" is to protect group home residents from "egregious abuse or neglect." The legislation is needed because a small percent of the group homes are "hell holes," Harris said. McCann was the second resident to die in the same Charleston group home in three years.

The second bill also is named in honor of a murder victim, Andrea Will. The 19-year-old Eastern Illinois University student was killed in 1998 by an ex-boyfriend, Justin Boulay. He completed 12 of his 24-year prison term and upon release left for Hawaii with a new wife, which drew wide-scale ridicule late last year.

Under the legislation, people convicted of first-degree murder of an adult would be required to be registered for 10 years upon release from prison. People convicted of murdering a child or murdering an adult because of sexual motivations would be required to register for life.

Sponsoring Sen. John Millner, R-Carol Stream, said Will's family and friends pushed for "Andrea's Law."

Boulay "gets out of prison, and nobody knows about it," said Millner, a former Elmhurst police chief. "He could be living next door to a young family, get mad and who knows what? Maybe kill somebody."

Senators passed the third anti-crime measure following acid attacks that left two Chicago women ,Karli Butler and Esperanza Medina, permanently disfigured in 2006 and 2008.

The legislation would require people to show photo identification before they could buy commercial-grade products like hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. The buyers' names would be entered into a database much like the one for people who buy over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine that contain pseudoephedrine, which is used in making methamphetamine.

The bill would give authorities help in tracking down assailants, said Sen. William Haine, D-Alton. The former Madison County state's attorney said businesses that regularly buy acid products for commercial use would be exempt from having to register every time they make a purchase.

The Senate voted 58-0 for both Andrea's Law and the acid registration bill, which was initiated when new Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza was a lawmaker. Those bills now go to the House.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

Past posts

Clout has a special meaning in Chicago, where it can be a noun, a verb or an adjective. This exercise of political influence in a uniquely Chicago style was chronicled in the Tribune cartoon "Clout Street" in the early 1980s. Clout Street, the blog, offers an inside look at the politics practiced from Chicago's City Hall to the Statehouse in Springfield, through the eyes of the Tribune's political and government reporters.